Monday, July 25, 2005

The Senate Judiciary Committee last week gave "a generally positive reception" to a federal shield law, the New York Times reports. Reporter Lorne Manly writes:

"The Senate Judiciary Committee gave a generally positive reception on Wednesday to proposed legislation that would protect journalists from having to divulge confidential sources in most cases. But a harshly worded dissent from the Justice Department, which called the bill 'bad public policy' that would hamper its ability to enforce the law and fight terrorism, underscored the difficult road the legislation faces in becoming law."

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary is scheduled to meet tomorrow to hear testimony on a federal reporters' shield law. According to the notice of hearing, scheduled witnesses include Time Magazine correspondent Matthew Cooper, Time Editor-in-Chief Norman Pearlstine, New York Times political columnist William Safire, Deputy Attorney General James Comey, University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey Stone and Washington, D.C., lawyer Lee Levine.

Friday, July 15, 2005

In an opinion issued today, Price v. Time Inc., the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the First Amendment protects a Sports Illustrated reporter from having to reveal his confidential source. Applying a balancing test, the court found that the plaintiff failed to prove that he made reasonable efforts to discover the information from alternative sources. The ruling came in a libel case brought by former University of Alabama football head coach Mike Price against SI and reporter Don Yaeger.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The Boston Herald, in an editorial published yesterday, Only a shield law can thaw the chill, says this isn't just about the press. "It's about granting all journalists the protections that allow us to do our jobs - in the interest of keeping the public better informed."

Monday, July 11, 2005

The Massachusetts legislature's Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight heard testimony today on six bills filed by the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association to toughen the enforcement provisions of the state's open meetings laws.

The committee, chaired by Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) and Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral (D-New Bedford), heard testimony by me, as MNPA executive director, and by media lawyer Peter J. Caruso of North Andover, who serves as counsel to the MNPA.

Several members of the committee expressed support for the bills. Rep. Cabral said his position on open meeting law reform may be even stricter -- he would like to see elimination of some of the statutory exceptions. Rep. Michael E. Festa (D-Melrose), House vice chair of the committee, said that as a former school committee member in Melrose, he had seen officials skirt the law. "I think the legislation makes perfect sense," he said. Rep. Marie J. Parente (D-Milford), said that she supports these bills because the open meeting law cannot be effective if there are no penalties for its violation.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Yesterday's jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller for refusing to disclose her sources heightens national attention on reporters' shield laws. For anyone wanting to learn more about reporters, subpoenas and shield laws, there is no better resource on the Web than The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Its special section, Reporters and Federal Subpoenas, provides in-depth and frequently updated coverage of efforts to enact a federal shield law as well as of ongoing legal controversies involving reporters' subpoenas. A separate section, The Reporter's Privilege, is a detailed examination, written in 2002, of the law regarding the reporter's privilege in every state and federal circuit. It provides statutes and cases and discusses both substantive and procedural issues.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin asks why her colleague Robert Novak is not also headed to jail and why the media have not done more "to trumpet what I think should be our profound outrage at what's going on."